UAB President Ray Watts speaks during a news conference, Monday, June 1, 2015, in Birmingham, Ala. Watts is bringing the football program back. He told The Associated Press that he decided on Monday, June 1, 2015, to reverse the earlier decision after meetings with UAB supporters continued through the weekend. He says donors have pledged to make up the estimated $17.2 million deficit over the next five years if football is restored. Monday, June 1, 2015, in Birmingham, Ala.(AP Photo/Brynn Anderson) It didn’t take long for the Alabama-Birmingham administration to figure out the error of its ways. Meanwhile, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga benefited from that error.
Monday afternoon, UAB’s president announced that the school was reinstating football in 2016. The announcement came six months after the decision to disband the program. A lot of players — more than half — decided to transfer after the initial announcement. Two of them, tight end Steve Pickren and offensive lineman Hunter Kennedy, chose UTC as their landing spot.
Neither was surprised by Monday’s news.
“I figured it was going to happen, just because the reasoning behind them getting rid of the program in the first place was faulty,” Kennedy said. “I was a little surprised it happened as quickly as it did.”
The rising sophomore said most of the freshman players chose to leave the school, even with the belief that the program eventually would be reinstated.